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When David Tennant returns to “Doctor Who” for the show’s 50th anniversary special, it will mark a special moment in time as the Tenth Doctor (Tennant) meets the Eleventh (Matt Smith). The episode filmed earlier in the year, and Tennant is finally opening up about it.

“I suppose you’d expect me to say we’re new best friends and I love him like a brother,” he tells Entertainment Weekly. “But that is sort of how it was. I had a fantastic time.” He adds that working with Matt on the show was a “real joy.”

Tennant understands that the situation could be very awkward to walk into. After all, Smith is technically playing the same role he did. However, anyone who watches the show knows that while they’re both the Doctor, the two are vastly different people. “I hope I’m speaking for him when I say we really enjoyed bouncing of each other and playing sort of two aspects of the same character,” Tennant explains. “It was everything that I hoped it might be and nothing that I feared it could be.”

As for slipping back into the role he played for three seasons of the BBC show, with companion Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) by his side, Tennant makes it sound pretty easy, though he admits it could have backfired. “It’s a quite rare set of circumstances: Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig don’t get to play James Bond next to each other. But actually it felt familiar enough that it was like coming home.”

The “Doctor Who” 50th anniversary special airs November 23 on BBC America.

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Posted by:Chris E. Hayner

Chris E. Hayner is equal parts nerd, crazy person and coffee. He watches too much TV, knows more about pro wrestling than you do and remembers every single show from the TGIF lineup. You may have seen him as a pro-shark protester in "Sharknado 3." His eventual memoir will be called "You're Wrong, Here's Why..." TV words to live by: "I'm a firm believer that sometimes it's right to do the wrong thing."

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